Gingerbread House STE(A)M Competition

Building in the Makerlab

Last school year I started promoting monthly stem challenges in the library.  This idea began when I was looking for something extra for my students to work on during a recess period when my students are able to visit the library.  This December, I decided to run a Gingerbread House Competition as our monthly STEM Challenge.  This was patterned after some of the gingerbread house competitions I have attended in the past.  Of course those competitions had real gingerbread houses made from candy and gingerbread.  The idea with this competetion was to make everything out of paper and crafting materials.  Students were allowed to work together and were given about 2 weeks of 20 minute increments to work on completing their houses.

The Rules Were as Follows:

1. Houses can only be made of paper and crafting materials.
2. Houses must be formally entered into the contest to win.

The next thing I had to decide was how the houses would be judged.  Should I pick a group of teachers or staff to judge?  I decided to give my students a voice by allowing them to vote on their favorite Gingerbread House.  Once, all the gingerbread houses were on display in the library, I numbered each house.  Students were able to vote once by filling out a ballot with the number of their favorite gingerbread house.  The top 3 winners received Amazon gift cards.  All winners received a small prize for participating.

I have included some of the items I created for this contest below.  Much of what I created was completed using the program Canva.  Canva is one of my favorite online tools.  I use it for signs, cards. and much more.  If you have not used it before, I would recommend it.  You will find that it is very easy to use and will make anything you create look fantastic.

This was a highly successful STEM Challenge.  Even the students who did not create enjoyed looking at the creations and participating through voting for their favorite.  Have you done something similar in your library or classroom?  I would love to see pictures and hear about your                                                                                      experiences.

Resources

Flyer and Rules

Gingerbread House Contest Form

Voting Ballots